Even on Deck, Reggie Again Inspires Fear on the Yankees

The announcement posted in the Yankees training camp was terse. George Steinbrenner would hold a news conference at 10 a.m. Saturday. Nothing more. However, no mystery about his mystery guest. Everyone knew that George would unveil old hero Reggie Jackson as the team’s newest personality, and with a flourish.

George made it clear in his opening remarks: “Reggie has accepted the position as adviser to the general managing partner of the Yankees. ... He will be part of the decision-making process.”

A rumble could be heard, warning of another quake among the Yankees in the not-too-far distance. What was Steinbrenner whipping up this time? And who in the Yankees structure had reason to be trembling the most, Gene Michael or Buck Showalter? Was Reggie being installed as the general manager in-waiting, Michael’s job, or was he in the ring as the incipient next manager of the team, Showalter’s worry.

Among the reporters present, an immediate consensus was that the 1993 Yankees had best take a six-game lead in the first month of the pennant race or there would be some changes made by the managing general partner most noted for making changes.

Well known is George’s short fuse and his philosophy about baseball managers and Kleenex -- they are both disposable. In his 20 years as Yankees owner, he has discarded his manager 18 times, and the general manager’s job could hardly be described as stable.

Unwittingly or otherwise, Reggie Jackson himself raised the prospect that his position as “adviser” to Steinbrenner might well mean something else.

When asked bluntly if he had any ambitions to be the team’s manager or general manager, he said, “Not at this time.”

Not at this time? What a comfort for both Michael and Showalter, despite Jackson’s emphasis that he would be engaged mostly in evaluating players and that his chief satisfaction was “being a part of the Yankees, which is the best franchise in sports and is known around the world.”

Reggie said he would be consulting continually with General Manager Michael. “I’ll be in the stadium as often as possible, and, yes, I’ll be in uniform some time, even starting tomorrow here in camp to offer some help.” As for shifting to a manager’s job he said, “It all depends.” Depends on George, who has this fetish and whim for suddenly appointing new managers.

Reggie is presently employed also as an adviser to the president of the Upper Deck Co., a sports card manufacturer with whom he is also a member of the board of directors. Seemingly, it was in that association that he learned words he used Saturday like “interaction” and “interfacing,” whatever they mean, but that he said would be part of his role in working with Steinbrenner and Michael.

Steinbrenner introduced Reggie as not only a baseball man but “one with an acute sense of business that I admire.” Also that he admired Jackson for choosing to wear a Yankees cap for his plaque when his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame was announced. George, the old sentimentalist, said that counted with him.

So effusive was Steinbrenner’s description of his new personal adviser that Reggie later commented: “I’d like a tape of that introduction when my new contract comes up.”

It was Reggie who introduced the subject of the Yankees’ minority hiring. “I won’t dwell on that,” he said. “So I’m black, so what?”

Neither did George address that question when he was reminded that the Yankees had only two minority hirings in their front office in his long term as owner. That’s when George became testy and said, “I’m not sure of that. Anyway, that’s enough about that question,” and declared the conference at an end.

So it was ended, but hardly at an end are the concerns of Michael and Showalter, with Steinbrenner’s new man in their midst, and it may seem, hankering.